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Dead malls offer fulfilling opportunities for the logistics business

A logo sits on the outside of an Amazon.com Inc. fulfillment center in Peterborough, U.K. Northeast Ohio is in competition with other sites nationally for a massive $177 million fulfillment center that Seattle-based Amazon wants to construct that could add 1,200 jobs in North Randall

"The pressure for speedy online package delivery is prompting companies to look for distribution facilities closer to residential areas or highways," the newspaper notes, and dead malls often fit the bill.

Warehouse landlords "say they like former malls because the shopping centers occupy swaths of space relatively close to where consumers live or near main highways," according to The Journal. However, the paper notes that it "isn't easy to convert a mall into logistics space quickly. Developers say it takes a community ready to accept that the mall has failed as well as understanding that there are viable job opportunities in logistics real estate."

The story notes that Amazon said earlier this year it plans to hire 100,000 full-time and 30,000 part-time workers in the U.S. by mid-2018.

"What's most meaningful to us is that it can bring new life to an unproductive piece of land," Jade Davis, vice president of external affairs at Port of Cleveland, tells The Journal. The port is working on the Amazon deal at Randall Park, which closed in 2009.

Amazon's possible entry there could eventually create 1,200 jobs. Davis says the large size of the site and its proximity to a deep-water port, airports and interstate highways are particularly conducive for a distribution facility.

There could be a lot more Randall Parks in the future. The Journal says the "dramatic shift in the retail industry and growth of e-commerce have led some analysts to estimate that 400 or so of the roughly 1,100 malls in the U.S. will close in the coming years."

So says The Washington Post in this analysis of the roots of surging steel prices.

From the piece:

Prices in the United States are at the highest point in about three years, according to SteelBenchmarker. China is a major factor driving this "summer of steel." The Chinese government has finally curbed some steel production, acknowledging that a glut of steel on world markets was causing prices to fall so low that even Chinese companies couldn't turn a profit. At the same time, China is hungry for steel as it upgrades its infrastructure. Lower Chinese supply and higher Chinese demand has sent steel — and other metal — prices up around the world.

All of this is great news for steel companies. ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer, just dramatically hiked its forecast for how much steel China is going to buy this year. Originally, the company predicted a 1 percent decline in Chinese purchases. Now it anticipates a 3.5 percent rise, according to the company's latest earnings report.

Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of Cliffs, sees the same trend, saying, "We are seeing a pickup in demand for steel products and iron ore in China."

This is "an odd turn of events" for U.S. steel companies, which for years "have portrayed China as a villain," The Post says. They have lobbied both Republican and Democratic presidents to fight against Chinese steel, and President Donald Trump, who has called the United States a "dumping ground" for foreign steel, has vowed new tariffs or quotas. (There's been no action on that, though.)

Goncalves is among those still urging Trump to put tariffs or quotas on foreign steel. The Post says he sees the relief from China as temporary.

"China will do what's good for China," he says.

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BLOOMBERG

Neel Kashkari

HE HAS QUESTIONS

It's quite common for companies to say they have trouble finding enough workers to fill open positions. (If you haven't already, you can read all about it in a Crain'sstory this week based on a survey by the Employers Resource Council.)

According to this story in The Washington Examiner, Kashkari "took a shot Monday at companies saying they have worker shortages, arguing that workers are available if the pay is higher."

His priceless quip, speaking to businesspeople at a Rotary Club meeting in Sioux Falls, S.D.: "If you're not raising wages, then it just sounds like whining."

Kashkari, who is a 1991 graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, then asked the group, "Are any of you planning to raise wages in the next year or two? Or are you just complaining about you can't find workers? If you look at North Dakota in the oil boom — if you raise wages, people respond and you can find workers."